Slain Bothell woman’s husband arrested

The estranged husband of a woman who was killed in February at her Bothell home was arrested Thursday after he refused to give police his passport, Sgt. Cedric Collins said.

Officers went to the home with a search warrant but initially were turned away by Alan Smith.

Officers returned a short time later and found Smith at another location about a mile away and arrested him on suspicion of obstruction, Collins said. It’s a misdemeanor offense, and Smith will be required to appear in court.

The passport was wanted as part of the investigation into the Feb. 12 homicide of 37-year-old Susann Smith, who died of head injuries.

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She was found in the bathtub with many severe injuries to her hands, arms and head that court documents said suggested she had been assaulted. No one has been arrested in her slaying.

She worked for a mobile-game developer in Seattle.

The Smiths were divorcing. They have two children. The children are not living at the home, Collins said.

Love Thai, Alan Smith’s girlfriend of a little more than a month, told a Seattle Times reporter the two were preparing to eat breakfast when the police arrived at the house Thursday morning. They served Smith with the warrant, which Thai said authorized searches of Smith’s house, car and motorcycle.

Thai said they asked for his passport but Smith wouldn’t let them inside. When the officers left, the two walked to a nearby cafe, she said. When police arrived, they asked Smith again for his passport, which he told them he didn’t have, and then arrested him.

Thai characterized the arresting officers’ behavior as “abrasive” and “abusive.”

In a video she took on her iPhone of the arrest, she can be heard repeatedly asking officers for Smith’s phone, which she wants to use to contact Smith’s attorney.

“Too bad,” one officer responds.

“Why is it ‘too bad’?” Thai asks.

“He can deal with it,” the officer responds. “He’s a grown adult. Just don’t cause a scene here. Leave.”

Arresting him for not providing his passport, Thai said, is “unconstitutional. They’re not giving him his due process.”

Bothell police did not respond to several calls from The Times to comment on Thai’s allegations.

Thai acknowledged that officers had been called to the home a couple of times in the past month after complaints from neighbors, most recently on Monday.

Officers found Smith and his girlfriend having sex in the yard, Collins said. Police talked to them but did not have cause for an arrest.